Artists Space

Attention Line Cinema Series: Johanna Went

July 13 – 23

As part of Attention Line, Artists Space presents a selection of videos featuring Johanna Went in our downstairs cinema.

Known for performances with exploding, fast-paced transformations of characters, sound, images, improvised music, and ritual, Johanna Went is a self-taught artist who attracted large crowds to LA area clubs throughout the early and mid 1980’s. She has performed widely at venues including Hong Kong Café, Beyond Baroque, The Whiskey a Go Go, Club Lingerie, the Music Machine, On Klub, LACE, COCA, Alice Tully Hall, Franklin Furnace and at the Perfo Time Festival in Rotterdam. Artists Space presents a number of these performances, many featuring her long-time collaborators, such as Mark Wheaton, Tom Murrin, Shirley Clarke, and more.

Johanna Went, still from Passion Container,The Whiskey, Los Angeles October 26, 1988 Video, Color, Sound, 35 minutes.

The following films will play during open hours on a continuous loop:

Untitled
John’s Place, Los Angeles
1977
Video, color, sound
12 minutes
A performance by Johanna Went

New Wave Theater
Cable TV Soundstage, Los Angeles
1980
Video, color, sound
6 minutes
A performance by Johanna Went. Music by Mark Wheaton with Steiner Parker on synth and Brock Wheaton on drums.

Untitled
ON Klub, Los Angeles
May 28, 1981
Video, color, sound
21 minutes
A performance by Johanna Went. Music by Mark Wheaton with Steiner Parker on synth and Brock Wheaton on drums.

Live At UCLA
UCLA Studio 1 Soundstage, Los Angeles
1982
Video, color, sound
2 minutes
A video by Shirley Clarke featuring Johanna Went. Music by Mark Wheaton with Steiner Parker on synth and Brock Wheaton on drums.

The Box
UCLA Studio 1 Soundstage, Los Angeles
1983
Video, color, sound
3 minutes
A video by Shirley Clarke featuring Johanna Went. Music by Mark Wheaton with Joe Berardi on drums, Jonathan Gold on cello, Hans Christian on bass, and Greg Burk on clarinet.

Knifeboxing
Club Lingerie, Los Angeles
July 27, 1984
Video, color, sound
28 minutes
A performance by Johanna Went. Music by Mark Wheaton with Steiner Parker on synth and tapes, Greg Burk on Saxophone and Robin Ryan on Percussion.

Primate Prisoners
Abstraction Gallery, Los Angeles
January 10, 1987
Video, color, sound
19 minutes
A video by Stuart Cornfeld and Hugh Brown featuring a performance with Johanna Went, Annie Iobst, and Lucy
Sexton. Music by Mark Wheaton with Steiner Parker on synth and tapes, Greg Burk on Saxophone and Danielle Elliot on drums.

Passion Container
The Whiskey, Los Angeles
October 26, 1988
Video, color, sound
35 minutes
A performance with Johanna Went, Peggy Farrar, and Stephen Holman. Music by Mark Wheaton with Steiner Parker on synth and tapes, Greg Burk on Saxophone and Robin Ryan on Percussion.

Hopes and Dreams of the Damned
LACE Gallery, Los Angeles
July 26, 1992
Video, color, sound
35 minutes
A performance with Johanna Went, Maureen Jennings and Tom Murrin. Music by Mark Wheaton

Johanna Went's work has been reviewed in X–TRA, Paper, Slash, Los Angeles Times, and High Performance, among other publications, and she was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship Grant in 1985. She has worked closely with long-time collaborator and musical director Mark Wheaton for 40 years. Recent exhibitions include Abulutions of a Nefarious Nature at Track 16 Gallery, Los Angeles (2007), Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. at MOCA, Los Angeles (2017), and Passion Container at The Box, Los Angeles (2020).

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